


I Wanna Be With You

by starlabsforever



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, for now, mostly cuteness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-18
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-10-20 13:20:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10663476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlabsforever/pseuds/starlabsforever
Summary: A place for all of my short Killervibe drabbles, mostly inspired by Tumblr prompts. Completely non-linear and will update sporadically.Most recent: High school AU





	1. Don't turn that on!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the prompt: "Don't turn that on!"

Caitlin staggered into her apartment, wobbling like a flamingo on stilts. “I am _so_ tired,” she announced, and threw her coat unceremoniously on the floor. Cisco picked it up and draped it over the coat hook, and watched her with mild amusement while he took his own jacket off. Drugged-up-on-pain-meds Caitlin was even better than drunk Caitlin. Better for his entertainment, that was. Neither was all that great for her.

He followed her into the living room. Caitlin had flung herself onto the couch, nestling her head against the back of the cushions and her feet propped up on the arm of the couch. He wondered when she was going to realize that she still had her shoes on.

“Are you sure you got that dosage right, Dr. Snow?” he asked, unable to disguise the amusement in his voice.

Her lips pursed and her brow furrowed into an angry pout. Cisco wasn’t fazed. He was on the receiving end of those looks on a daily basis, and that was when Caitlin was sober.

“Believe me, if I was going to increase my own dosage, I’d’ve increased it a hell of a lot more.” She threw her head down against the couch cushions dramatically. “Everything hurts.”

“You wiped out pretty hard,” he reminded her. “For the record, I appreciate that you rushed to my rescue, but next time, maybe don’t rush into Vibe versus evil meta with _heels_ on _.”_

“He was kicking your butt,” she snapped. “It’s not like I had time to change into sneakers.”

“See, there’s a solution to that- wear sneakers _all the time.”_ He prodded her foot gently. “Hey, scoot over.”

She pointed to the compression bandage on her other foot. “Elevating it,” she said snippily. He had forgotten that woozy-on-meds Caitlin was touchier than drunk Caitlin. Then again, he didn’t have quite as many data points for the latter. They needed to fix that. It was hurtful, frankly, that he’d never gotten to sing drunk karaoke with her and Barry had. He added it to the mental bucket list and returned his attention to his patient.

“Smart. Do you need ice on that?” She nodded, so he went to the kitchen and searched the freezer for something appropriately cold. He was surprised to find that Caitlin didn’t have an actual ice pack in her freezer, so he settled on a bag of frozen corn, and then decided that it was too icy, so he opted for the peas instead. He wrapped it in a cloth and returned to the living room, where Caitlin had turned the TV on. It was some ABC sitcom where Minnie Driver was arguing with John Ross Bowie. Not her usual style, but she wasn’t much of a TV watcher, anyway. She probably just turned it on for background noise.

“Hey, don’t turn that on,” he chided. “Concussion, remember? You’re not supposed to be staring at glowy electronic things. Doctor’s orders.” He held out his hand for the remote.

“Doctors order’s are to do whatever the hell I want, because I’m the doctor in this room.” She slid the remote onto the coffee table, out of his reach. He placed the frozen bag over her foot, gently. She flinched a little when it touched her bare skin.

“Do you need anything else?” he asked. “Water? Sustenance? Your kitchen’s pretty empty, but I could order in pizza. Or I could make pancakes, from scratch, thanks college. Or if you just want to sleep, that’s-”

“Cisco,” she interrupted. “I just want to get some rest.”

He backpedaled hastily, stung. “Oh. Sorry.” He took a few steps back. Drunk Caitlin was definitely more fun. “I, um, don’t want to leave you here, concussion and all, but I’ll stop- I can go hang out in the kitchen if you want me-“

“No, that’s not what I meant,” she said quickly. “I just meant, I don’t need anything. I want to be with you. Will you just come sit with me?”

It had been so not what he was expecting her to say that he just paused. “Oh,” he said. “Well, all you had to do was ask.” She moved her leg off of the end of the couch, and then winced.

“Hey, easy.” He helped her maneuver her foot onto the coffee table, and then sunk down onto the other side of the couch, and instantly felt like he was being devoured by its impossibly squishy cushions. It was just as well- he may not have taken as many hits as Caitlin in this night’s outing, but he was still dead tired. He was worried he was going to fall asleep on her. _I really should have hit Jitters on the way here._

He felt a hand on his and glanced at Caitlin. “Thanks for taking care of me,” she said softly, and her diction was relaxed and plaintive, like a young child.

“Don’t mention it.” He squeezed her hand. “It’s what we do for each other.”

She smiled placidly, and he realized her eyes were glazing over. “Are you sure you got that dosage right?” he asked. “You seem, uh, a little too woozy.”

“Trust me, it’s the right dosage for the pain I’m in. And it’s still not enough.”

She curled into the side of the couch, and while she watched Minnie Driver and John Ross Bowie try to discipline their teenagers, he watched her attentively to make sure that her pupils weren’t dilated. It was hard to tell, because her eyelids were steadily drooping. Pain-med Caitlin was woozy, but nowhere near as fun as drunk Caitlin. She just looked kind of piteous, with her glazed eyes and messy hair and the STAR Labs sweatshirt that hung off of her shoulders.

He felt a weight on his shoulder and realized that Caitlin was curled up against him. He glanced at her, and she looked up at him, craning her neck at an angle.

“Hey,” she whispered, and her eyes were definitely glazed over.

“Hey,” he whispered back. “You good?”

She nodded. “I’m perfect.” She nestled her head into his shoulder. He wove his arm around her shoulders and rested his hand on her upper arm. In a few minutes, she was completely asleep against his shoulder.

Well, between the sinfully comfortable couch and this, that settled it. He was never getting up again.

Everything he needed was right next to him.


	2. I can't do this without you.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the prompt: "I can't do this without you."

“Cisco.”

He swiveled his chair around to face the source of the voice. Caitlin’s arms were crossed tightly and her jaw was set. “We need to talk,” she said flatly.

“Uh,” Cisco said. “I think you might be mad or something, but I’m at a loss as to why.”

“You know exactly why.”

“Clearly I don’t, or I’d’ve hightailed it out of here before you found me.”

She exhaled, a long, frustrated sigh. “You left your email up on your computer last night.”

Well, crap. He _did_ know what this was about. He knew playing dumb wouldn’t work, but he tried anyway. “Is this about the French prostitutes or the rare Pokemon cards I bought on Ebay?”

She blinked, puzzled for a second, and then must have realized he was joking, because she plowed on. “No. It’s about Bell Labs.” He picked up the Rubik’s cube on his desk and fiddled with it, even though it was already solved. Maybe by the time he unsolved it and then solved it again, this conversation would be over. Caitlin cleared her throat. “Cisco, Bell Labs! They offered you a position in their think tank and you turned it down?”

“Well, yeah.” He turned the cube over in his hands. “Why would I wanna work for a lab owned by _Nokia?”_

“Because it’s one of the most prestigious engineering labs in the country, and you’re a _brilliant_ engineer!” He pretended to be really immersed in the Rubik’s cube- he wasn’t, really, he’d solved it a hundred times. It was just a buffer between him and Caitlin and this conversation that was happening whether he liked it or not. Which Caitlin must have known, because she gave a little annoyed huff. “Would you please _look_ at me?”

“You know what, no.” He looked up at her. “Can we kill the prelude, please? I know what you’re going to say. I’m squandering my talents, I should be taking advantage of these opportunities-” She was scowling. “Well, I’m not wrong, am I? That is what you’re going to say.”

“Because it’s _true,”_ she said firmly. “And because you need to hear it. Clearly.”

He was getting annoyed now. “What’s _that_ supposed to mean?” He asked crossly.

“I took the liberty of searching your email-”

He dropped the cube down on his desk. “You looked through my emails? Jeez, Caitlin, do you have _any_ boundaries?”

“It was your work email, not your personal,” she argued. That didn’t make it better, but he dropped it. “I searched to see if you had had any other offers, and you did. Over a dozen, just in the last year and a half. And you’ve turned all of them down. Why?”

He shrugged. “I can’t exactly leave.”

“Sure you could,” Caitlin said so quickly that he raised an eyebrow at her. “I mean, we would miss you, of course, but you wouldn’t have to leave completely. Maybe not Bell Labs, but you had some local offers. Barry has a day job, why couldn’t you?” He didn’t answer. “Cisco, the offers that you’re getting, it’s amazing enough. I mean, Princeton, SLAC? That’s _incredible._ Combined with the fact that STAR Labs still hasn’t recovered from its bad reputation, it’s amazing that you’re getting offers despite that.” He stared at his hands. “I just don’t want you to forgo these opportunities because you think that you can’t leave.”

“That’s not why.” He laced his fingers together. “I don’t want to leave.”

She looked surprised. “Then why’d you send your resume to all of those labs?”

Cisco shook his head. “When I was doing stuff for the police, I submitted a bunch of patents, remember? And I patented the cold gun, not that I’m ever gonna make one again,” he said quickly. “But I patented the design. With some modifications, of course, because a giant ice gun is kind of suspicious, but the barebones of it, you know? And then I started getting all of these offers.” He shrugged. “I know I could leave, honest, but I don’t want to. I never even considered accepting any of them.”

“Never?” she prodded. He nodded firmly. “Do you think that you’re not qualified? Or that there’s nothing out there for you besides this? Because-”

“Please stop putting words into my mouth,” he interrupted, and she fell silent. He loved Caitlin, but she could be a steamroller at times. “It’s because of you.”

Her eyes widened, and something undefinable flashed across her face. “What do you mean?” she asked softly.

“The summer you were at Mercury Labs sucked.” He swallowed, remembering it. “I was bored without you, and then I realized I wasn’t bored, I was miserable. Because I just don’t feel complete without you. I don’t care how prestigious the lab is or how much money they pay me, there’s nothing there for me if they don’t have a Caitlin Snow.”

“Cisco,” she said quietly. “It’s not like we would stop being friends if you went to work somewhere else. This is different than when I went to Mercury Labs. And besides, if you worked somewhere local, you could still have time for Flash things.”

“Yeah, but I like it here.” He shrugged. “I just… you know, my life isn’t _great_ right now.” He tried not to look at the orange prescription bottle on his desk, or at the framed picture of Dante that lay face down. His mind flashed with memories of the awful days just after Dante’s death, so grey and painful and suffocating. Just the thought of it made him feel a ten-ton pressure on his chest. Those days had been so dark, and the only thing that kept him afloat was Caitlin. Caitlin sleeping on his couch, Caitlin reminding him to take his meds, Caitlin just being there. Even though that time was one of the darkest in his life, something had shifted between the two of them. Where there had friendship before, now there was an iron-forged bond, fusing her to his heart. He didn’t know how to define it, but he did know he couldn’t live without it. He looked up at her earnestly. “I can’t do this without you.”

Her eyes were filled with that indefinable something again, and then she launched forward and wrapped him in a tight hug. “I can’t do it without you either.”

He pulled away to look at her. “Then why were you encouraging me to leave?”

“I wanted to make sure you didn’t feel tied down. Like you couldn’t leave. But if you just don’t want to-”

“I don’t,” he interrupted, reassuring her.

She nodded. “Good. Then you _better_ not.” She raised an eyebrow. “Also, French prostitutes?”

“It was a _joke,”_ he insisted, but Caitlin still gave him a hard time about it. She sat down on his desk, and their teasing, friendly, comfortable banter resumed as normal.

It was still indefinable. But It was definitely _something,_ and he was pretty sure that she felt it, too. No, he was positive.


	3. Of course I'm in.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the prompt: "This is without a doubt the stupidest idea you've ever had. Of course I'm in."

“Skydiving, huh?” Cisco raised his eyebrows at Iris. “You know he’s petrified of heights, right?”

“Of course I do,” Iris said, and glanced at Barry mischievously. “I’m the one who instilled that fear in him.”

Barry blushed. Cisco raised his brows again. “Do tell.”

“It’s a long story,” Barry mumbled.

Iris glanced at Cisco. “When we were 12, I made him climb a 30-foot tree with me and then left him there.”

Barry exhaled. “Apparently not that long. Anyway, that was when I was a kid. Life is too short to not be spontaneous every once in a while.”

Cisco didn’t miss the flicker of sadness across their faces. He clapped his hands together. “Wise words from a wise man. Have fun, you crazy kids.” Iris grabbed Barry’s hand and they left the cortex together. Cisco turned to go back to his workshop when he heard the tiniest sigh.

He turned on his heel to face Caitlin, who was sitting at the computer desk. “What was that?”

She blinked innocently. “Hm?”

He tilted his head at her. “C’mon. I heard that sigh. Nothing gets past these ears.”

She chewed her lip. “Um. I dunno, I just… seeing Barry and Iris do things like that…” She trailed off and he waved his hand in a “go on” gesture. When she didn’t, he sat down in the chair next to hers.

“Are you saying you want to go skydiving?”

She grimaced. “ _No._ ” Her expression softened. “But maybe… something exciting. Spontaneous, to use Barry’s word.”  
  
He leaned back in the chair, lips turned up in a smile as he reveled in the moment. “Let me get this straight. You, Caitlin Snow, want to be spontaneous. The same Caitlin Snow who buys the same thing at Jitters every morning, who has been taking the exact same bus route for five years, who takes five minutes to put on lipstick because she can’t choose between burgundy and sangria. You want to do something crazy and exciting?”  
  
She ducked her head slightly. “I didn’t say crazy.”  
  
Cisco’s grin widened. “What did you have in mind?”

“I don’t know, I wasn’t-  _stop_ looking at me like that,” she ordered, noticing his goofy smile.

The grin prevailed. “I have  _so_ many ideas for you.” He kicked his chair around so that he was facing the computer and punched a few keys. “Look at this. There’s this place where you can swim with sharks in Coast City.  _Or…”_ A couple more seconds of clacking, but he pulled up another page. “Ooh, Bungee jumping in Gotham. Off of a  _skyscraper.”_

Her nose crinkled. “I don’t have a death wish.”

He shook his head. “Bungee jumping is like skydiving for people with less of a death wish. Or there’s parasailing, they have a place for it in Midway. Or-”

“Cisco,” Caitlin interrupted, and he glanced at her. She looked thoroughly overwhelmed by his enthusiasm. “You’re right. None of that is me. Forget I said anything, okay?”

His smile faltered. “Hey.” He touched her arm. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to go overboard. I just got excited, because like I said, you’re not really a spontaneous person.” She half-smiled. “Was there a reason for that sudden out-of-character desire?”

Caitlin’s face was crossed with anxiety and a little bit of sadness, and he expected her to withdraw and clam up, but instead she looked him in the eye. “It’s nothing huge. Just… living the life we live, none of us know how much time we have.” He opened his mouth to tell her not to think like that, more out of instinct than out of actual agreement with the sentiment, but she held up her hand. “Please let me finish. We  _don’t_ know how much time we have left, no matter how hard we try, and our lives are so stressful and painful sometimes.” He wanted to look away, but he didn’t. “So yes, even though I am probably the most unhealthily methodical person on the planet, I kind of want to do something unexpected. I never want to have regrets that could have been avoided.”

Cisco held her gaze for what felt like a month, but in actuality was only a few seconds. “Okay,” he said softly. “So what do  _you_ want to do?” She started to say something and he held his hands up. “No sharks, no bungee-jumping, no ridiculous Cisco things. This is all you.”

She blinked her doe-brown eyes and looked not unlike a deer in the headlights. “I dunno. I’ve always wanted to see the Northern Lights.”  
  
“Ooh, Aurora Borealis.” He snapped his fingers. “Okay, that’s a start. How do we make that crazy and spontaneous?”

She opened her mouth, probably to rebuke his choice of adjective, and then paused. She looked at him shyly. “What about a road trip?”

His eyes lit up. “Now you’re getting it.” He turned back to the computer and googled “Closest Northern Lights to Central City, Oregon”. “Hey, is your passport current? There’s this Jasper Planetarium in Alberta.” He opened Google Maps. “Uh, it’s an 14-hour drive, though. That might be a bit much.”

Caitlin glanced at the clock on the wall. “If we left in an hour, we’d get there by 2 am local time.”

Cisco kicked his chair around to look straight at her. “But we have work.”

“It’s Friday,” she argued. “Wally can keep an eye on things for a day.”

He studied her face closely, trying to determine if this was an elaborate practical joke, but found nothing but sincerity. “Are you suggesting that we shirk our duties to go do something completely impulsive and unplanned?”

“If you keep using adjectives like ‘crazy’ and ‘impulsive’, I might change my mind.” Caitlin gave a little smile. “But, yes. Right now a road trip sounds like a great idea.” She looked shy again. “If you’re in, of course.”

“Wow.” He regarded her seriously. “This is without a doubt the stupidest plan you’ve ever had.” He paused for effect, but she looked dismayed, so he rushed on. “Of course I’m in.”

Her face broke into a smile, a real smile. She stood up. “We are taking  _my_ car, though. I told you, I don’t have a death wish.”

“What are you insinuating about my car?” He followed her to the door. “Fine. You get snacks, I’ll provide music?”

Her lips turned down into a little pout as she grabbed her coat. “What, you don’t trust me with the music?”

“Not even a little, sorry.” They exited the Cortex and he grabbed her hand. “Hey, listen. I never said that the way you do things is unhealthy. That’s you and that’s okay. You know that you don’t have to do this to prove a point, right?”

She nodded. “I know. I’m doing it because I want to, and I want to do it with you.” She smiled again, but this one was different, a much more intimate expression. “I want to be spontaneous with  _you._

Cisco felt his stomach flip at the warm smile on her face. This was another kind of spontaneity, one that he wasn’t quite used to. What the hell. It was time to take chances and see where this went. “Well, good. Let’s get this party on the road.”

He wrapped his arms around her shoulders. She leaned her head against him and they left STAR Labs, headed towards the thrilling uncertainty of the future together.


	4. Are you jealous?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the prompt: "Wait a minute. Are you jealous?"

Caitlin gazed across the room, trying to analyze what was happening. Her brain was in science mode- dissecting and analyzing the evidence until it fit into a previous theory or brought her to a new one. Her most important theory: her relationship with Cisco was the one constant in her life. Unfailing, unchanging.

None of what she was seeing or feeling fit that theory. Cynthia’s hand on Cisco’s arm, his arm around her waist, their lips, their- wow, okay, she did _not_ need to see that. She stood up and stalked across the room, heels clicking.

“Hey, Bonnie, Clyde,” she snapped, and the couple peeled apart to look at her. “Control yourselves. This is a workplace, not a hotel.”

Cisco’s brow crinkled, bemused, but Cynthia was unbothered.

“Sorry,” she said smoothly. “We got carried away. All that adrenaline from taking down that meta-” She glanced at Cisco. “What did you name her?”

“Apparition,” Cisco murmured. He was still watching Caitlin, eyes slightly narrowed as if he was trying to solve a riddle in his head.

“Right, because she can phase through solid objects like a ghost.” Cynthia beamed at Cisco’s apparent genius and slipped her arm around his shoulders. He set his hand on her back and his fingers clenched against her shoulder blades. “Caitlin’s right, though. This is the team headquarters, not our personal-”

“I beg you, don’t finish that sentence.” Caitlin sat down at the computer desk so that she would look like she was busy, even though she wasn’t.

“I’m gonna go grab a coffee, babe,” she heard Cynthia say, and she glanced back at them sharply. _Since when does she call him babe? Or anything besides “Cisco”, for that matter?_ “You want to come with?” They were standing very close again. Even in her heeled boots, Cynthia was short enough that her eyes were about level with Cisco’s lips. That was the only acceptable explanation for how often she looked at them.

“I think I’ll stay here. I have some work to do, but I’ll see you tonight?” Cisco stooped down slightly to kiss her cheek. Caitlin felt herself bristle involuntarily and quickly looked back to the blank computer screen. She heard the sound of Cynthia breaching away and braced herself.

He barely waited. “Um.” Cisco walked to the other side of the computer desk so that they were face to face. He folded his arms. “You wanna tell me what that was about?”

She tried not to notice how well-defined his arms were when he folded them like that, and oh boy, her stomach was doing the cha-cha again. She tilted her chin to look up at him. “If Cynthia is going to be a part of the team, she needs to behave like it. That includes following our rules, and we have rules about PDA in the lab.”

He rolled his eyes so hard she thought she saw the back of his eyeballs. “No-one listens to those rules, and you know it.” His brow crinkled again and his left eye did that squinty thing that was so inexplicably attractive. “So what’s the problem?” She tried to look anywhere but at him, but her eyes kept snapping back to his. They were like magnets- dark brown, sparkling magnets. Her thoughts must have shown in her eyes, because his expression changed. “Wait a minute.” The corners of his mouth turned up into an amused smile. “Are you… _jealous?”_

It felt like he was reading her damn mind. It made her feel so transparent and that made her so frustrated. She knew he was right, but at the same time, she didn’t understand how. Why would she be jealous? She didn’t want Cisco. She couldn’t. That would be wrong. And yet… her eyes were overwhelmed by everything that she loved standing right in front of her. His intelligence and kindness and optimism, not just his dark brown eyes and his smooth, curly hair and oh wow those _arms._ It made her feel conflicted and confused and a little bit dirty and she just wanted to defend herself from all of those feelings and it bubbled out of her mouth in nine spiky words: “Why would I be jealous of someone with you?”  

Cisco’s smile dissolved, and then she realized how much vitriol she’d spoken with. “Ah,” he said, in that neutral sort of tone that wasn’t neutral at all. “Well then. I’m so sorry that I insinuated…” He waved his hand in a circular motion. “…that. It’s just that you were incredibly rude to my girlfriend just now.” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, hard. “You have been for a while, actually, and I was hoping you had a reasonable explanation for it.”

His face was set with hard lines- angry, on the surface, but his eyes betrayed hurt. “I’m sorry,” she said automatically. He raised his eyebrows as if to say _Oh really?_ “It’s just… I’m with Julian.”

His eyes widened with exasperation. “And I’m with Cynthia,” he said, as though he were explaining the alphabet. “I don’t- I’m not- that wasn’t me _hitting_ on you. It’s just, you’re acting a whole lot like you’re jealous, or else you’re just being mean, and I thought you were better than that.”

Caitlin clenched her hands on the desk and exhaled. “I’m sorry. I like Cynthia, I do, and I was completely out of line to talk to her that way. I’ll apologize as soon as I see her.” Some, but not all of the tension left his shoulders, but his arms were still tightly crossed. “And I’m happy for you, I am.” She wasn’t sure how much of a lie that was, and she didn’t want to meditate on that because she wasn’t sure she was comfortable with the answer. “But now that you’re with her, it feels like things between us are different.”

He stared at her, his face unreadable. “How so?”

She shrugged, uncomfortable. “The dynamic is different, I guess.”

He swallowed again. “Well, how do you think I’ve felt for four months while you’ve been with Julian?”

His voice didn’t quite crack, but faltered slightly on Julian’s name. That cut through her anger and embarrassment and made her look him in the eye. “I never want to marginalize any of my…” She trailed off. Friendship wasn’t enough to describe what Cisco was to her. They were more than that. Weren’t they? She started that sentence over. “I’ve been trying my best to balance my relationships.”

Cisco nodded. “So have I. You’re really important to me, Caitlin. That’s never going to change, but now that I have someone else who’s really important, too, some things _will_ change.” He closed his eyes for half a second, like he was praying for patience. “I would appreciate it if you could give me the same benefit of the doubt that I’ve given you since you started dating Julian.”

That hurt. Not his words, but the way he said them. Formal. Impersonal. Like he was explaining how his tech worked to an investor. In five years of friendship, he had never used that voice with her, even when he was brand new and her subordinate. 

“Of course,” she said, in the same impersonal voice. Her press voice, Cisco called it.

Cisco exhaled, and his arms dropped to his sides. “So. You’ll apologize to Cynthia?”

She folded her hands in her lap and clenched them together. “Of course.”

He took another deep breath. “Okay then.”

“Okay then,” she echoed. He looked at her as if he wanted to say something- his gaze too intent, too probing. He swallowed whatever he had been about to say and nodded instead.

Caitlin stared at her hands in her lap. She had been so concerned about defending herself that she damaged something far more important.

Her mind raced: _Am I in love with Cisco?_

More importantly: _Did I just destroy our friendship?_

She felt sick. Her mind raced over the questions, trying to answer them in a way that fit the theory. _Cisco is a constant, the only constant. Things between us could never change, at least not irreparably._

Her mistake was that she hadn’t accounted for outside factors. Like herself, and her jealousy and pettiness.

There’s a reason why science and emotion don’t mix.


	5. Backseat cuddling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the Tumblr prompt: cuddling in the backseat of the car

“Pull over,” Caitlin commanded.

“No way.” Cisco squirmed out of her reach. “We’re never going to get to Star City at this rate.”

“You’re falling asleep, so pull over.”

“I yawned once! C’mon, we gotta keep going. Oliver needs us.”

“We’re no good to him if we die in a car crash.”

He rolled his eyes. “Why don’t you drive?”

“Because I’m tired too, because it’s 2 in the morning!”

She had a point. “Okay, fine. But only for a couple hours, and then we need to get going.” He steered the car over to the shoulder of the dusty dirt road and it screeched to a halt, grinding skid marks into the dust.

As soon as he let go of the wheel and laid back in his chair, his eyelids started to droop and wow, he really was tired. He was half-drifting off when Caitlin’s voice startled him awake. “I don’t understand why you couldn’t have just opened a breach to Star City.”

“Uh, maybe because we’re transporting a truckload of precious and delicate tech that we can’t just chuck through a portal!”

“So instead that precious cargo is being endangered by your junk heap of a vehicle.”

“And your driving skills,” he sniped back.

She stared at him through the dark. “Come on, lay down. You’re exhausted.”

He shifted abortively. “I can’t sleep sitting up and these old-ass seats don’t recline.”

“That’s on you for buying a 15-year-old truck.”

He flopped onto his side and stared out of the window. He heard Caitlin moving beside him and he flopped back over. “Hey, what are you doing?”

She was scrambling over the middle console into the backseat. “I’m going to lay down and actually get some sleep back here so I can drive us without crashing.”

“Hey, I’d’ve done that if I’d thought of it!”

“Too bad.” She stretched out catlike across the backseat.

He glared at her through the dark for a minute, and then got an idea. “I’m joining you.”

“There’s not enough room!”

“I’m tired. Bite me.” He crawled into the back, and damn, it was tight, but if he draped himself diagonally across the seat, he could get comfortable. He felt Caitlin’s foot in his side and shoved her gently. “Make room.”

“There is none.” He felt her shifting and then he felt a weight on his shoulder.

He glanced at her. “Hey, what are you doing?”

“Well, if we lay like this, there’s enough room for both of us to lay down.”

She was right. He slid onto his back and was finally comfortable. Caitlin was wedged against his side, so he wrapped his arm around her waist and she rested her head against his shoulder.

“You think you can fall asleep like this?” she whispered. He could feel the vibration of her voice in her chest, pressed against his.

He stared at her, her face illuminated by the dim glow of moonlight through the window. “Yeah. I think I’ll be okay.”

She smiled tenderly and laid back down against him. The gentle rise and fall of her chest and her heartbeat against his were a comforting rhythm, a calming metronome that forced his nerves to slow down. She nestled her head into the crook of his neck and he could smell her vanilla-scented shampoo under his nose.

He slept better than he had in years.


	6. Please don't go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the prompt: "Please don't go."

The alarm blared unpleasantly in her ear. Caitlin was about to slam the snooze button when she spotted the red numbers out of the corner of her eye- 7:35 AM.

“Dammit,” she mumbled, and swung her legs over the side of the bed. The bedsprings creaked, and a lump under the covers squirmed. Oh yeah, Cisco was in her bed. She’d forgotten briefly that that was a thing now, and remembering made her heart soar.

He poked his head out from under the covers and blinked. “Cait?” he mumbled.

She smiled at his sleepy face and messy hair. “Go back to sleep,” she whispered.

“Where are you going?” he asked, his voice slurred with sleep.

“I want to get to the lab early.” She pulled her t-shirt off over her head and stepped out of her sweatpants. “But really, go back to bed.”

“What, and be a lazy ass while my brilliant girlfriend works hers off?”

“No, because I know for a fact that your ass wasn’t asleep until a couple hours ago.” She slipped her arms into a white blouse and started on the buttons. “I know you have trouble sleeping, but you need to at least try.”

He made a few abortive movements to get up, and then pressed his head down into the pillow. “I can’t sleep when the other side of the bed is cold,” he whined.

She slipped her legs into her favorite pencil skirt. “Maybe we should get a dog.”

“Cait _liiin,”_ he begged, and looked so pathetic that she was almost tempted to get back in bed with him.

“I have work to do,” she said apologetically. “I’ll make it up to you tonight, okay? Extra cuddles.”

Caitlin went to the bathroom to brush her teeth. When she came back, Cisco had flopped over onto his stomach, and she thought that he was asleep until he mumbled, “The bed is really warm.” He rolled over and sat up. “Please don’t leave.”

She turned to look at him as she twisted her hair into a bun. She studied his face- he mostly just looked sleepy and worn-out, but he had a pro poker face. “How come?”

Cisco stared at her for a minute and then scratched his neck. “I, uh, I’m having nightmares again.”

She slid the last bobby pin into her head and sat down on the edge of the bed. “What about?”

He studied his hands. “You. Other things, but mostly…” He trailed off with a petrified horror frozen in his eyes. “That’s why I couldn’t sleep,” he said huskily. “I didn’t want to close my eyes because I wanted to make sure you were safe.”

She felt an unnecessary twinge of guilt and reached up to stroke his hair. He melted into her touch, closing his eyes as she ran her fingers over his skull and tucked his hair behind his ears. “How about your headaches?” she asked quietly.

“Mm,” he said, eyes still closed.

“Cisco.”

“One or two…”

“Really?”

“…a day.”

“Cisco!” She glanced at the orange prescription bottle on his nightstand. “We can talk about a stronger prescription if you need one, but you need to talk to me about these things.”

“There’s never a good time.”

“We literally _live_ together.”

“Yeah, but I’d rather spend my time with you doing more exciting things.” He opened his eyes. “I’m not really interested in killing the mood with ‘hey, can you up my Naproxen dosage?’”

“Fair.” She ran her hands down his neck and squeezed his shoulders. They were so tight. “How about you bring these things up at work? That way our time at home can be strictly fun.”

“Okay.” He grabbed her shoulder. “See how warm this bed is?”

“Hey!” She twisted away. “I have to work. I told you.”

“I know, but I told you.” The corners of his mouth fell. “I can’t sleep when… I like to know where you are. It helps with the pointless anxiety.”

Caitlin looked at the shadows under his eyes, the creases across his forehead. She stood up and his face fell. “Bye,” he mumbled.

“Hold your horses.” She unbuttoned her shirt and slid out of her skirt. “I’m just changing into something more comfortable.” His face lit up and she found one of his bigger t-shirts in the closet. It hit her mid-thigh and was bright red and said, _This shirt is blue if you run fast enough._ She slid it over her head.

Cisco’s eyes were sparkling with adoration. “I have the best girlfriend on the planet.”

“Agreed, but first-” She picked up a glass from her nightstand and filled it up in the bathroom. She came back and handed it to him, along with his prescription bottle. “You can have two of those.”

He grimaced at the lukewarm water, but swallowed both of the pills. She slid back under the covers and he nestled into her side.

She smoothed his hair down against his skull, all the way down his neck, rubbing her fingers lightly over the vertebrae in his neck. “I’m right here,” she murmured. “I’m safe. You’re safe. It’s okay.”

His breathing slowed gradually, but he still felt so tense beside her. “It’s okay,” she whispered, and was glad she hadn’t taken off for work.

He would always be more important.


	7. Trapped in a tight space

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the prompt on tumblr: cuddling out of necessity (trapped in a tight space, etc)  
> Boarding school AU because it just happened.

“Come on, behind here!” Cisco hissed, and dove behind the counter. He pressed himself flat against the cabinet and glanced sideways, expecting to see her next to him.

She wasn’t.

He stuck his head out from behind the counter and saw a pair of Mary Janes tapping testily against the ground. He glanced up and the rest of her was there too, plaid skirt and uniform polo and yep, complete with a withering glare.

“What are you doing? We’re gonna get caught!”

“You’re going to get caught,” Caitlin Snow said haughtily, and crossed her arms. “I’m going to be right here, explaining why you’re hiding in the kitchen at one in the morning while we’re supposed to be in bed, and I’m going to be right there in the principal’s office when you get expelled.”

Oh, she had some nerve. “Yeah, well, I wonder how well your excuse is going to hold up once they check the security cams and see that you were right with me and that _you_ were the one who shredded Barry Allen’s expulsion forms.”

She didn’t move, but she looked uncertain now. “They have security cameras?”

“Of course they do, AARP, it’s 2004. Which means that every second of your incriminating behavior is immortalized on film forever. But they’re not gonna look at it if they don’t find us, so get your ass behind this counter.”

She stood still for a moment, chewing her lip, and then her face twisted into a glare. “Fine.” She ducked down next to him and then glanced across the room. “Wait, over here.”

“Wait, what are you-” She grabbed his blazer sleeve and yanked him across the kitchen towards the pantry.

“It’s safer in here,” she whispered, and cracked the door open. “Come on.”

He clambered in after her, but there wasn’t nearly as much room as he thought there would be, and he smashed his knee on a can of instant mashed potatoes. “Dammit, ow,” he grumbled.

“Close the door!” Caitlin reached for the handle and slammed it shut. “Cisco Ramon, I swear to god, if I get expelled because of you, I’m going to-”

He never knew exactly what she was going to do to him, because he clapped a hand over her mouth. “Shh,” he whispered. Her brown eyes lit up with indignance, but he shook his head and pointed to the door. Dissonant voices floated in under the pantry door, accompanied by the staccato rhythm of footsteps. Gradually, the voices and footsteps faded, and Cisco relaxed.

Caitlin twisted away from his hand. “Can we leave now?”

“You crazy? Nah, we gotta wait till old man Berlanti goes back to bed and everyone stops looking for us. I’d say an hour at least.”

It was almost pitch black in the pantry, her face only illuminated by a slat of light from under the door. “But it’s so crowded in here.”

“That sounds like your problem.” He leaned back against a sack of flour, in the only empty square foot he’d managed to find in here. “Me, I’m gonna chill with these pancake ingredients until it’s safe.”

Her face scrunched up angrily, looking all kinds of cute, but he didn’t say that, because then he’d probably take another Mary Jane to the shin.

Instead, what he got was an elbow to the ribcage. “Move.”

“Hey, no, find your own spot!”

“You’re the reason that I’m in this mess,” she whispered furiously, wedging herself in between him and the flour sacks. “I should at least get a comfortable spot.”

He tried to push her away, but damn, she was strong. “Hey, don’t try to play the victim here. You agreed to do this with me.”

She had settled halfway into his spot, and they were squished together now, shoulder to shoulder. “Well, yes. Because I don’t think Barry deserves to be expelled.”

“Neither do I, but you can’t blame your involvement on me. You could’ve stayed out of it.”

She glanced at him sidelong, her pupils wide in the dark. “It’s not his fault Eiling has it out for him.”

“No, it isn’t.” He stared at the door, listening to her breathing in the dark. “Hey, listen, I’m sorry for all those times I didn’t stand up for you when Hartley called you the Ice Queen.”

She stiffened beside him. “It’s fine.”

“No, it’s not, and it’s not even true. You’re not icy at all.”

He felt her muscles relax beside him. “I’m sorry I didn’t stand up for you when Lisa Snart told our whole grade you had syphilis.” 

“It’s fine,” he deflected. “I’m the nerd that the nerds hate. Being nice to me is basically social suicide.”

She stared at him. “Well, now that we’re delinquents together, I don’t really have a choice, do I?”

He turned to look at her. His knee bumped into her leg. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I’d like to have some nice friends for a change.”

He felt his heart skip. “You know, so would I.” He glanced at the door. “Granted we make it out of here without getting expelled.”

She grimaced. “There is that.”

She shifted and he felt her arm against his. “I can move, if you want.”

“No, that’s okay. There’s enough room for both of us.”

He tried to lean his head back, but there was a hard metal can behind him and he hit his head. “Dammit,” he grumbled again.

She glanced at him. “You can put your head on my shoulder if you want.”

His stomach flip-flopped. “Why?”

She shrugged, and her shoulder bumped him. “You look uncomfortable.”

He stared at her, and slowly leaned over and wedged his head against her shoulder.

It was definitely more comfortable.


End file.
